As this week’s storm attests, the old, blustery Northwest Colorado winter has returned for its annual assault, and in full force.

Snow blankets every pocket and crevice of our small town here in Moffat County, which means it’s time to talk about one seemingly small but vitally important issue: snow removal.

The scenes found at several businesses early Monday and Tuesday mornings were encouraging: shop and store employees were out in front of their businesses, working a shovel, clearing excess away from entrances.

This small gesture is an important token of customer service, and is important for local businesses to maintain sales and services, and add to the overall economy.

In today’s economic climate, businesses don’t need any more reason to give potential consumers another obstacle in spending money.

If anything, businesses need to make their locales more inviting and accessible.

If there’s one criticism for Editorial Board members, it’s that not nearly enough businesses had someone out front, making entrances easier for local patrons.

With the amount of snow our community has gotten in recent days, it shouldn’t be difficult to separate those who care about their customers and their safety and those who aren’t as proactive.

On the topic of snow removal, the Editorial Board also would like to commend city street crews for the good job they’ve done so far in maintaining roadways as much as possible.

Clearing the streets is often a difficult and thankless job, and crews have a wide swath of municipal real estate to maintain.

They’re not always going to make everyone happy, but for the most part, these crews do an admirable job of keeping the primary, most well-used roadways safe.

For residents, these two acts — businesses maintaining their sidewalks and entrances, and road crews putting their tax dollars to good use — should represent gratitude that others are out there working for community betterment.

Winter is long in our community, and the snow will keep coming for several more months.

The Editorial Board hopes that the same sense of business and civic-responsibility shown recently is as constant as the snow falling.